Cuba No; Miami Sí: Cuban Americans Coping with Ambiguous Loss

Abstract

This study explores the lifelong loss that Cuban émigrés experienced after leaving Cuba following the 1959 revolution. Many left thinking they would remain in exile for a brief period, but a return no longer seems possible. Nevertheless, their attachment to the lost homeland persists. The annual Cuba Nostalgia event at the Miami Expo Center attests to this enduring sense of attachment. Employing a phenomenological framework, we interviewed 10 older attendees who left Cuba between 1959 and 1979. Themes that emerged from the interviews are consistent with ambiguous loss theory and also reveal positive coping skills and resilience.

Keywords:

• Ambiguous loss of homeland
• Cuban American exiles
• nostalgia
• phenomenology

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I thank Fordham University for funding this study and Dr. Zulema E. Suárez for her role in assisting with data collection and reading my final manuscript. I also thank the participants whose brave stories were shared honestly and openly.